This invention relates generally to toilets. More specifically, this invention relates to apparatuses and methods for manufacturing water—saving toilets using specific emitters and detectors.
Water is a precious commodity that should be used efficiently. For this reason, many have explored ways to use less (save) domestic water by modifying household devices such as faucets, showers, baths and toilets.
For example, Hefti (EP1378612) teaches providing cameras in the dry portions of the toilet that capture images relating to the “solids” content of a toilet bowl where a camera captures images from inside the bowl and another camera captures images from the “siphon”, and adjusts flush (wash water) volume as a function of the excrements visually detected.
Chan (US20100146691) teaches an intelligent flushing system that uses an odor sensor and cameras to monitor interior conditions of a toilet and detect wastes in order to optimize flushing (volume).
Park (WO 01/73228) teaches a toilet that uses an infrared sensor for determining the presence of a user and thereafter generating an “etiquette sound”, for hiding certain unpleasant sounds associated with defecation. The Park toilet also uses optical emitters/sensors in order to adjust flush volume by discriminating the presence of urine (weak reflection) and feces (strong reflection) based on their ability to reflect the optical signal.
Tsukamura (U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,359) teaches a health monitoring toilet having a UV source for emitting ultraviolet radiation for the purpose of “deodorizing” the contaminants found in the toilet bowl.
Chen (US20100088812) teaches a urinal having a hidden sensor to determine urine concentration using electrodes that measure conductivity of a liquid in the urinal. The urinal then determines an appropriate volume of flush water based on the detected urine concentration.
Many references such as lkenaga U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,431, Maekawa U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,767, Saito U.S. Pat. No. 4,982,741 teach “health monitoring” aspects of various toilets that capture urine or feces in order to detect illnesses or abnormalities in excrement characteristics.
Yamasaki (US 2006/0096017) teaches another “health monitoring toilet” that is designed for determining the volume of voided urine. Yamasaki's main purpose for determining a volume of urine is to measure absolute amounts of various urine constituents, such as glucose and salt. Glucose and salt concentration in urine are not constituents that would require an increase in flush volume as they are both odorless and colorless. Yamasaki discloses modifying the siphon of a toilet in order to provide a siphon-generating element or fluid jet that lowers the level of pooled water prior to urination, thus allowing to easily determine the volume of voided urine. Although the drawing suggest modifying the siphon, the purpose is only to provide a siphon or fluid jet and the modification protrudes from the siphon.
Finally, Jallon US20110146800 teaches a shower system that recycles (or not) water based on the detection of contaminants in the water. The system uses a UV source and detector to detect the presence of urine based on its absorption characteristics.
However, the prior art water—saving toilets are not fully satisfactory as they do not allow to efficiently detect the waste level in the toilet bowl. As a result, it appears that water saving could be further improved.
An object of the invention is to provide a water-saving system which is more effective than the prior art systems.